From the Los Angeles Times
Dated Saturday April 30
Polls Push Governor to the Border
As his popularity wanes, Schwarzenegger revisits a Republican mainstay: illegal immigration
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer
Sacramento — If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to speak out forcefully against illegal immigration seems familiar, it is. The governor is using a well-worn tactic to seize public attention amid plummeting approval ratings, analysts and others said Friday.
Speaking to reporters, Schwarzenegger on Friday likened the armed Minuteman group that has roamed the Arizona-Mexico border looking for illegal immigrants to a "neighborhood patrol" that has succeeded where the government failed. A day earlier, he called their work "fantastic" and chastised the Bush administration for failing to secure the border.
Schwarzenegger also had said Thursday that a Spanish-language billboard characterizing Los Angeles as a Mexican city was "divisive," a comment echoed by conservative groups. Last week, the governor said the U.S. should "close the borders" — a remark his staff said was imprecise and for which he later apologized.
The governor outraged Latino activists and his Democratic opponents with his comments, but he was treading an often effective path, analysts said. Republicans have used California's permeable border as political fodder for years. And Schwarzenegger was elected in 2003 after demanding that people in the state illegally not be issued driver's licenses.
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Warning: just as a wounded animal is a dangerous thing, so is a desperate politician. Pete Wilson was never a popular governor; to remain in power, he never shied from playing the demagogue. Arnold, now desperate, is reading from Wilson's script.